Over the years we had many wonderful bloggers on 3 different blogs, Eeek. So we consolidated them all here on our new blog - The Blogfish. Come check it out. 

​I’ve always loved Halloween, not only for the obvious reasons of spooky fun and abundance of candy, but for the costumes, parties, and Halloween themed parks. I’m a sucker for a good scare. Over the past five years, I’ve brought the Halloween spirit into our house with my window monster tradition, adding a new paper cut-out ghoul or beast each year. (Check out my Instagram for this year’s edition).  Although my love for Halloween just about spans my lifetime, I’ve only recently begun discovering spooky Halloween picture books.
 
Several creepy classics come to mind, but my current favorite is Monster & Son by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Joey Chou. If you’re ever in the Eagle Rock area of L.A., stop by Leanna Lin’s Wonderland, an art and gift shop where I find my gifts and unique picture books like this one. Local artists like illustrator, Joey Chou, contribute to the art shows from time to time, so it’s a pretty fun place to check out. 

​The Book
Back to Monster and Son- this book is a recent addition to my collection, not only because I’m a big fan of Chou’s, but it’s a more light-hearted take on the monster book, making it perfect for younger kids. Monster and Son shows the heart-warming relationship between a monster and its son, written in fun and minimal rhyme by LaRochelle, making it a delightful bedtime story as well. 

​Art and the Fun Stuff
Chou’s variety of monsters, from King Kong to skeletons and swamp monsters are just the right amount of scary and adorable. The artwork was created digitally, and Chou uses this medium to his advantage, working with different textures and color palettes to create each monster world. Chou’s signature style is a refreshing take on picture book illustration, with added patterns and angular shapes to really draw your eye in. The appearance of tiny human beings in the monster world is especially fun to look for too.

Kids will love it because…
…it’s such a fun and colorful monster book. Monster and Son is the perfect Halloween book for those looking for an entertaining monster book without the big scare factor. These friendly creatures might even inspire a drawing-fest for your little monsters. I know I’ll be looking here for inspiration for next year’s window monster friends. 

You can find out more about David LaRochelle and Joey Chou in the links below:
http://www.davidlarochelle.net/
http://joeyart.tumblr.com/

​You can find more of Sarah's musings and drawings here:
www.sarahmomoromero.com 
Facebook: Sarah Momo Romero + Instagram: @sarahmomoromero + Twitter: @sarahmomoromero ​

Sarah Momo Romero is a Japanese Peruvian American artist, a graphic designer by day and children's book author and illustrator by night.  She’s loved drawing and painting since she was a chiquita and now crafts stories of adventure and wondrous creatures.  Sarah is an active SCBWI member who draws inspiration from her life in sunny Los Angeles with her husband/creative partner and dog/infamous escape artist, Peanut.  Look out for her first picture book coming out in
​May 2018!


​You can find more of Sarah's musings and drawings here:
www.sarahmomoromero.com 
Facebook: Sarah Momo Romero + Instagram: @sarahmomoromero + Twitter: @sarahmomoromero ​

​As a life-long artist, but first time picture book illustrator, I feel so excited, but also slightly overwhelmed by illustrating today. There are infinite possibilities and tools for creating children’s book illustrations. Not only do we as artists have the traditional paints, pencils and markers at our fingertips, but the world of digital illustration lets us dip our toes into any technique and style without having to dive in and purchase all the actual art supplies. You don’t even need a computer! Drawing apps make it possible to sketch on your phone if you really wanted to (not that the screen size would be ideal, but it is a possibility!)
 
With the countless number of tools we have to create art, it’s so refreshing to see children’s book illustration created by one of the simplest of tools- a colored pencil.
Edward Gets Messy, written by Rita Meade and illustrated by Olga Stern, splats, plops and gloops full of colorful messes and playful little animals, as Edward learns to loosen up and get messy.

The Loft Literary Center https://www.loft.org/  in Minneapolis cancelled its upcoming conference on writing for children and young adults due to whiteout conditions.  Complaints from the public and shrinking attendance levels prompted the cancellation, with only one person of color scheduled to speak.  According to the Loft Literary Center, more than 10 POC were invited to speak, but none were able to attend or interested in attending. The part that strikes me is the fact that such a small pool of brown presenters was invited.  More than 10?  Out of the entire children's literature industry that's how many people they could find to approach about presenting? 

According to the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, out of 3,200 children's books published in 2016: 

• 90 were by African American authors
• 8 were by Native American authors
• 194 were by Asian American authors and
• 94 were by LatinX authors

Responses to the cancellation shocked me. People seemed to think acknowledging authors of color is an attempt to be politically correct and is reverse racism.  Is this really how people in the Midwest feel about POC in the children's literature community?  The comments felt Trumpish and hateful.  They exemplified feelings of white fragility and the strong dislike that Caucasians have of being labeled "white."  The commenters clearly felt that their white race is the default and to be labeled as white was an affront. They see themselves as raceless, just "people," no need for any labeling.

"Political correctness gone amuck.  This kind of stuff makes me crazy and a bit angry." says lynneploetz in the comments for the article announcing the cancellation. 

"Just the difference in men vs women's writing is a huge diversity! I did read a book recently written by a man, from a woman's perspective too, that I found very interesting and thought he did very well in getting the woman's point of view down." Marathon2004 thinks diversity means having a man write from a woman's point of view.  No need to involve POC or even women to get diversity, apparently.

"Imagine if the same diversity nonsense was applied to the NBA." says DeeJayMN. 

Another commenter proudly points out that the Loft Literary Center's mission statement mentions nothing about diversity. 

"Diversity itself has become an exclusionary concept that "whites" aren't allowed to belong to. "The problem is crucial because of the whiteness of children’s literature in general," said Shannon Gibney, who apparently doesn't realize how racist this statement is. Too bad the Star Tribune believes this kind of discourse is acceptable. If someone were to complain about the "blackness" of something, they would rightly be deemed a racist. Why is it OK when leveled against white people? What exactly is "whiteness" and why is it taken as axiomatic that it's bad?" Carciofi is furious that white people are excluded from diversity and furious that whiteness is even a term used to describe white people.  271 comments, white people praising each other for speaking out against diversity.  One commenter argues that diversity is more than race, that we are all different from each other in "so many ways."  Needing diversity to include people who aren't white "really seems so stupid to me." he says. 

Reading these comments is making me wince, I'm trying to comfort myself by thinking that this is just a small pocket of people in the Midwest that have nothing to do with my world, but in light of last weekend's white supremacist rally in Charlottesville and the political climate of our nation, I have to acknowledge that this is real and this is how white people feel. The dismissive tone and the repetitive use of words like "silly" and the victimized tones that the comments carry leave me feeling absolutely drained and exhausted.  We are drowning in a sea of hate.

For next month's post and moving forward, please send me questions and topics that you would like to discuss that involve libraries, books, diversity, and the children's literature community.  fifiabuillustration@gmail.com

Fifi Abu spends her days surrounded by books that have already been created and the rest of her time writing and illustrating books yet to be born.  She looks forward to a day when all children can see themselves reflected in the books they read.  Ms. Abu holds a master's degree in children's literature and a master's degree in library science, is an active member of SCBWI, a Children's Book Academy graduate, and is represented by Linda Epstein at the Emerald City Literary Agency.  She is pleased to announce that she has been elected to the 2019 Caldecott Committee.

www.fifiabu.com